So if you haven’t seen my Instagram or TikTok posts announcing my pregnancy … Surprise! I’m pregnant!

I’m actually almost through my second trimester, which is crazy to think about. Today I thought I’d share a bit about the journey to getting pregnant, how I found out I was pregnant and my experience of the first trimester.

Journey to Pregnancy

So in February 2020 as I picked up a repeat prescription of the pill I realised I had been on the pill for over ten years. I remember coming home and saying to my husband that I wondered what being on it for so long was doing to my body and that I was tired of taking it. So when the prescription ran out I wasn’t planning to renew it. This led to a conversation about was it worth trying a different form of contraception out or should we just go without and see if we got pregnant as we both knew we wanted kids at some point.

So September rolled around, we’ve gone through months of the pandemic and I was down to my last packet of pills. We ultimately decide let’s go for it and try for a baby. I finished the packet, have the withdrawal bleed and then waited to see what happened. We told ourselves not to put pressure on it and what would be would be.

October rolls around, one of my best friends gives birth, I didn’t get my period so we decide for me to take a test … only to see a negative. I talked to a few friends and family about coming off the pill, to find out for the majority of the women I talked to it took them 6 - 8 weeks for them to get a period when they came off. So I thought nothing of it.

November rolls around, no period after 8 weeks so I took a test … another negative. My sister calls that evening to let us know she’s pregnant, I’m both so excited for her and gutted for me. I thought it's only been two months, I’d been on the pill for so long maybe it’s just taking a bit longer.

December rolls around, I felt nauseous and headachey. Still no period so I tested again … another negative. A close friend messages me that evening to say she’s pregnant, again I’m so happy for her as I know how much she wanted to be a mum.

I broke down crying to my husband and mum, saying I don’t understand how everyone else seems to be getting pregnant and I can’t even get a period back. I voiced that I was scared that I've screwed up my body and why does no-one teach you about this in school? In the UK we get taught how to prevent pregnancy but not how to get pregnant, what’s normal, what’s not, when do you go to a doctor?

With their support I booked an appointment with my doctor to see if what I was going through is normal or not for the sake of putting my mind at rest.

I had the appointment. The GP was great, she told me it can take up to 6 months to get a period back after such a long use of birth control pills. Then reassured me that if I hadn’t had one by March I should call back and she would run tests to check everything is OK.

Two days later, I got my first natural period in over a decade and almost cry happy tears. I think that conversation helped ease the stress and worry I was holding on to.

How I Found Out

So I had my first period, wait four weeks and don’t get a second. I tested and got a negative and think if it's taken three months to get my first period, my cycle could be off for a while.

After a conversation with my sister who said why don’t I try and track my cycle? It may put my brain at ease, I bought some ovulation tests and a basal thermometer.

They come a week later and I started testing and taking my temperature each day. The results I got look like I was ovulating at the time so I thought ‘that’s great we can try for this month and see what happens’.

A few more days go by and the results still show me to be ovulating which I know can’t be right and I was a bit confused by so I started googling.

I came across a video where the creator had a similar thing happen and they took a pregnancy test which was positive. Their doctor has told them this was fairly common. So I thought it won’t harm to take a strip test.

I took the test and almost immediately it shows as positive, I didn't believe it so I took another … that one comes back positive too. So by this point I was really hopeful, I took the only digital test I had in the house. I waited less than a minute for it to show the word pregnant. I started laughing and crying and thought I’ve got to tell my husband. I looked at the clock and realised it was only 7am, so I can’t really wake him up and shock him, so I should wait until he gets up.

He came downstairs a few hours later, I waited until he had a few sips of coffee before I handed him the tests. He looked shocked, then starts beaming. Honestly the best Saturday morning of my life so far!

My First Trimester

From my last period to the date of the test, we thought I could be as far along as 6 weeks pregnant. We told our parents and my sister but otherwise keep it a secret for a few weeks. I was feeling good, I called the GP on the Monday and have what feels like the most surreal conversation with the receptionist to say I’m pregnant and what do I do next?

She booked me in with the midwife, I get sent paperwork to fill out for my booking in appointment. On the letter it says to decide what hospital I want to give birth in, after a couple of conversations and some more googling we decided on one. As it wasn’t the default one on the letter I call the GP to check it's still OK, they said yes, the midwife shouldn’t have a problem.

We waited two weeks for the appointment, I started to feel exhausted and a few days before the appointment I started to feel nauseous. I got excited and nervous for the first appointment. The day of I felt fairly rough, which I take as a good sign and drive myself to the appointment (my husband was not allowed to come due to Covid). I walked in, the midwife I’m meant to see was not in that day so I was seen by a different one. The appointment starts by running through the preliminary information and I mentioned where I want to give birth and why. Her face dropped a bit and she told me I can't be booked in and there wasn’t much she could do much for me, which sucked. I got told who to call to get booked in at the right hospital but want even given the number to call.

Luckily the second booking in appointment went better than the first and the midwife made me feel so much better and listened to all my concerns and excitement which was great.

During this time, I seemed to go off all foods that weren’t beige. I lived off toast with marmite, crackers, apples and pasta with parmesan cheese. My husband kept trying to offer vegetables which just the thought of made me feel nauseous. I couldn’t look at my food blog or Instagram so instead downloaded TikTok and started to follow other pregnant women and mothers with young children.

My main symptoms through the first trimester were exhaustion, I slept on a regular basis for up to 16 hours a day. I very rarely threw up but I almost constantly felt nauseous and smells would make me gag. I had headaches that lasted for days at a time, my body started to change rapidly and then the anxiety hit.

For bit of context I used to be very anxious and from the ages of 17 to 25 suffers from panic attacks regularly. Luckily around age 25, I learnt how to deal with them and started to become more confident in myself. So when I was hit with my first panic attack in almost five years around 10ish weeks into my pregnancy, I was caught off guard and unfortunately none of my usual calming techniques seemed to help.

In early April we went for our first scan, thus seemed to really peak my anxiety. Luckily we were blessed with a great sonographer who put us at ease within the first few minutes by letting us know the baby had a heartbeat. She then chatted through the scan and let us know everything was looking good. Unfortunately the scan showed I wasn’t as far along as we thought and it was slightly too early to do the NT testing.

That meant a second scan a few weeks later, so we got to see the baby again, which is always a bonus. The second sonographer was very quiet and seemed quite stressed which left us feeling concerned but the midwife who talked to me after put my mind at ease and told me the report said everything was looking good.

And that recaps my first trimester! I hope you enjoyed reading and if you're going on gone through a similar experience you know you're not alone!

Julia xxx